German mortality rate 3 per cent above normal at end April

Frankfurt (dpa) – The mortality rate in Germany at the end of April declined to just marginally above the average over recent years, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Friday.

Based on provisional figures from the local authorities, at least 17,974 deaths were recorded in the week April 20 to 26. This was 882 fewer than in the week before and just 3 per cent above the average figure for the four years 2016 to 2019.

Thus far, week 15, from April 6 to 12 has shown the greatest variance from the recent average, when the mortality rate was 13 per cent higher than the previous four-year average.

“Comparing European figures, the excess mortality in Germany is relatively low,” Destatis said, pointing to a figure of 49 per cent in Italy over the month of March, as compared with the years 2015 to 2019.

For the weeks 14 to 16, greater Stockholm recorded twice as many deaths as the recent average.

By Friday morning, Germany recorded more than 177,200 cases of infection with the novel coronavirus, up from 176,400 on Wednesday evening – Thursday was a public holiday in Germany.

According to the data, compiled by dpa from the individual 16 states, at least 8,173 people infected with the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen have died, up from 8,117 on Wednesday evening.